| Too Much Time: Let me start by saying, I do not mean this to be rude to anyone who has made these comments in the past. My biggest pet peeve is when people tell me I have too much time on my hands. I like to build things, and make things. I always have, and I am pretty sure I always will. I enjoy following schematics, diagrams, and blueprints, as well as building things that are floating around in my head. My favorite projects are electronics and circuits, but I also like to build mechanical contraptions, such as the trebuchet that the kids and I recently finished. Probably the most fun part about these projects is having the kids help me build them. They get to learn a lot about mechanics, physics, electronics, math, and more. They never stop asking questions while we're building something. You can just see them soaking up every detail, like little sponges. Here is where my pet peeve comes in. We like to take pictures and videos of our projects so we can share them with friends and family that live out of state. Well, I usually send it around to everyone I know, or post it on YouTube, or Facebook. When someone sees what we’ve built and says, "You have too much time on your hands", it really upsets me. The last project we made took us the entire weekend to complete. If I had not built this project with the kids that weekend, what could I have better spent my time doing? I guess I could have sat on the couch and watched football all weekend. I'm sure the kids would have learned just as much and would have had just as much fun. Seriously, when the kids are grown and they look back on childhood memories, which will be more important to them; remembering building things with their dad, or remembering sitting around watching TV every weekend with their dad? I realize that the projects we do and the things we build generally have no practical application, so they seem pointless. But it's not about the finished project, it's about the journey we took together to get there. The majority of people has “too much time” on their hands, but tends to spend it in more traditional ways, such as watching TV or playing video games. When I get home from work in the evenings, I eat diner, help the kids with homework, spend time with the family and then put the kids to bed for the night. After that, there are still several hours before it's time to get a shower and go to bed myself. This is spare time. How do you spend yours? What about the weekend? Kids are home from school, I am home from work. Let's do our chores, clean the house, do the laundry, cut the grass etc. Guess what, when that is done, there is still a lot of weekend left, which means a lot of free time. How do spend yours? The next time you are ready to tell someone they have too much time on their hands, stop and think about how much time you have on yours. I'm willing to bet you just choose to spend it in a different manner. |
